


Champions (A Manhunt Fic)

by SomeFicOnTheInternet



Series: Minecraft Champions [1]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Blood and Injury, Don't Try This At Home, Dream is referred to as Clay in flashbacks, Fairly Short Chapters, Gen, Manhunt - Freeform, Minecraft, Minecraft Manhunt, Minor Violence, No beta we die like a president with heart problems, Probably ooc, Rated teen for violence and references to death/injury, The Nether (Minecraft), change to game mechanics for spicee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28865730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeFicOnTheInternet/pseuds/SomeFicOnTheInternet
Summary: Long, long ago there lived 5 champions... They were the very definition of heroic, standing up for the people when things seemed bleakest. You see, there was a great threat to the world. A terrifying dragon terrorized the people by sending his armies to innocent villages."---Dream grew up hearing stories of heroes, but when it's his turn to follow in their footsteps it seems the whole world is against him.Especially those three hunters.
Series: Minecraft Champions [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116854
Comments: 22
Kudos: 46
Collections: Purrsonal Picks





	1. Heroes

“Long, long ago there lived 5 champions... They were the very definition of heroic, standing up for the people when things seemed bleakest. You see, there was a great threat to the world. A terrifying dragon terrorized the people by sending his armies to innocent villages and using them to block off the roads. Despite the-”

“Just like the Endermen!” Clay interrupts his father without thinking, slamming his hand over his mouth when the kid next to him sends him a truly deadly glare. That doesn't change the way he bounces on his heels, feeling as though he had sleuthed out a huge conspiracy. 

“Now Clay,” His father answered, voice soft and low, as if talking to a child… because he was… “No one knows where the Endermen are from, or why they attack us but the armies these champions fought were very similar. Studying these past heroes is how I learned to defend our town. As they quested they would set up automatic defenses around the villages they came across, like the ones I set up in the forest.”

“Oh! That’s why we can't go in there?” 

“Hypocrite.” Clay whispers to the kid beside him who had just called out. 

“The heroes knew that wits and logic was what was needed to defeat the mighty dragon. That is why their leader, the Hero of Green, assembled his team not based on their power, or ability with a sword, but rather on their individual skills. 

“The Hero of Red. A nobleman with many connections. Loyal, brave and ready to face any threat as long as those around him stay safe. The Hero of White. Skilled in redstone contraptions and the best support one could ask for. The Heroes of Blue. A wonderful couple with tactical skills like no other, able to put their minds together to solve any issue. Then of course there was the Hero of Green. The man who brought them all together, known for he’s ever-present smile, and discovering how to take the dragon down and banish the armies plaguing the land, of course. These heroes-”

“Storytime is over everyone! Go run home before the sun goes down.” A chorus of complaints rang out when the village elder stopped the story, though one by one the small group of kids did go, leaving Clay with his father. The two walked slowly towards their home, not concerned with the setting sun in the west, knowing that their town was protected from the void-like figures that spawned on the horizon. 

It wasn’t until the sun had nearly vanished from the sky that they reached their home on the edge of town. Though, instead of going inside, they stopped at the door. 

“Clay,” his father crouched down to his level, meeting his eyes the same way he did when his mom had left. “You are a smart boy, and so, so very strong. I fear you may be too young to hear this, but we are running out of time.” Looking around them to make sure no one is lingering in the streets, Clay’s father led him behind the house and down a path to a small cave. Inside were green banisters hanging proudly on the cave walls, tables covered in complex scribbles Clay couldn't yet understand, maps of nearby areas affected most by the Endermen and jars full of the strange spheres said creatures left behind. Most awestricking was a glowing green gem hovering in the middle of the room. Just slightly bigger than the palm of someone's hand, it drew Clay in, he found himself walking past his father to stare at the mystic stone. 

“What is all of this?” His voice was barely a whisper as he grabbed the gem and held it to his chest, turning to his father once more now that he knew the gem wasn't going anywhere. 

“You already know Clay, you guessed as much today.” His father walked towards a chest underneath a table and pulled out a mask with a strange smile on it. “The heroes of old are real, the armies they fought were the Endermen. All of this was passed down through our family line, starting with the Hero of Green. The recent increase in these monsters is a sure sign of the Great Dragon having returned.”

His father placed the mask over Clay’s face. Despite there being no obvious eye holes, Clay could see through the mask like it wasn’t even there, meaning there was no way for his father to hide the tears streaming down his face. 

“These… attacks by the Endermen…” His father starts, voice wavering. “If they don’t stop by the time you are sixteen come back here, and not a day before.”

:)

His father disappeared not long after that. Dream knew that he had gone off to try and save the world but even his closest friends wouldn’t believe him. Not that it mattered. A few years later and he was headed back into the cave, heart heavy and feeling slightly betrayed at the thought of his fathers failure. Not that Dream could blame him any more. 

It had been four years since he put on the smile mask and started out on his journey. He suspects he would’ve been done ages ago if the things in the cave were anything near useful. There were blueprints for Endermen traps and supplies he would need for his journey, sure, but instructions on what to do and how to do it were vague at best. That is not even considering the government's obvious attempts to stop him. 

Not only was he the most wanted criminal in the country, thank goodness for his mask being the key feature on his wanted posters or he would never be allowed in towns, but the dragon he was after was declared sacred by order of the king. Making all research into where it was and how to kill it nearly impossible . The key word being “nearly”. 

Four years, countless hunters, hours of research and many nights under the stars and finally, finally! The dragon was only a couple days of hard work away. He looked up at the sunrise through the black portal in front of him, swirling purple warping the sky as he stepped into the Nether.

He wonders if his father ever got this far.


	2. Three Muffinteers

“Both of you have cool code names!”

This is not how Bad wanted to spend his morning. 

“You can’t just choose to have a ‘code name’.” 

They had been sitting in camp for the better part of the morning, not making any progress. Bad was one of the best hunters in the country, a well known nobleman hired by the king to deal with this issue, and yet all he was doing was sitting next to the dead coals of a fire. He had taken down some of the most wanted criminals in the world and was now stuck on the ground listening to his companions playfully argue about names.

“Really, how did you get your name then?”

Unfortunately, the device they were using to track their target had mysteriously stopped working that morning and nothing seemed to be fixing it. Not that the device was anything short of impressive.

“I’m not just going to tell you that! The name Sapnap is very important, I don't go by it to be cool.”

Sapnap, the creator of the currently malfunctioning compass, refused to share how it worked. That didn’t stop Bad from immediately seeking him out when the king gave him this mission. The man was practically famous within the tracking community for bringing runaways and kidnappees home to their families, using nothing more than the compass he was currently fiddling with. He was the first person Bad thought to bring with him. On the other hand…

“Oh, sure! ‘very important’ I believe you. Besides there is no way everyone gets a cool name given to them.”

The other person on their mission was George. There was nothing wrong with George, in fact he seemed promising. The problem lied in experience. Bad doubted that George had gone on a single manhunt before this. The man had stopped him after hearing about his assignment though the rumour mill and had all but begged to be taken along. He had said something about wanting “clout” and in the end Bad had agreed to him coming with. 

“How many people with ‘code names’ do you know other than Bad and me?” Sapnap looked up from his compass to throw a berry at George, who easily whacked it away with his hand causing it to hit Sapnap instead. 

Bad had to admit George had good reflexes… for a greenhorn.

“Well, Dream has a cool name, I guess…” George deflated a bit as he spoke, as if embarrassed to like Dream’s name.

Dream. Their target. The man had been evading authorities for years. The exact reasons for the call for his arrest weren’t clear to the public, but Bad had been told directly by the king “that man is weakening, and looking to kill, the Ender Dragon. She is the only thing stopping the Enderman from taking over completely. That man is the reason everyone is in so much danger.”

“Cool? I heard he got the name because he steals them. The only way to know if he's in a town is if no one has a dream that night.” Sapnaps voice dropped as he spoke, like he was telling a ghost story to a group of children. George's face paled in response, immediately becoming paranoid and looking over his shoulder. 

“Sapnap, don’t spread such obviously not real stories!” Bad laughed and patted George on the back, “it’s better to tell believable ones. Like, I heard he wears his mask, not to hide his identity, but because he made a deal to kill anyone who sees his eyes.”

“Um,” George started lamely, “I heard it's because he’s an Enderman. It's why he’s so tall.”

“I’m pretty sure you're just short.”

“Sapanp, you're such a dick.” 

“Watch your language!” Bad chided, “but that does make you wonder if he’s even human… I wonder if he is from the Nether or something?”

“The Nether…” Sapnap trailed off, staring at the widely spinning needle in his compass. “The Nether! Guys, the compass doesn't work if we are in the overworld and he’s in the Nether!” 

Camp was packed up quickly after that. They had wasted enough time sitting around doing nothing. 

It was time to go dream catching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a nice scare today when I found the ENTIRE fic erased from my computer. I got it restored thankfully, but I almost gave up on it.


	3. The Hell Dimension

The Nether was hot, the mobs were ruthless and Blazes were nearly impossible to find. Dream knew things weren’t going to be easy, but he had traveled for hours before he found a single Blaze. He had almost resigned himself to spending another four years in the Nether until he saw the red structure the Blaze came from. Inside was a different struggle however, as the strange black skeletons that roamed the halls caused Dream to run off and hide in a corner until the pain subsided more times than he was willing to admit. 

Eventually he found a high up platform that seemed to draw them in, it was perfect to collect the rods that fly around their flaming forms. The only problem was that he had no clue how many he needed. 

Dream knew that he needed the blaze rods in order to turn ender pearls into eyes of ender. Figuring that out alone took many months, how, exactly, to do it took longer, and he still wasn’t sure what the difference between them was. But he needed the eyes to find the portal to the end, how that worked still evaded him too, but that was a problem for future Dream. Current Dreams problem was that he wasn’t sure how many he would need to make an eye, or how many eyes he would need. 

Instead of obsessing over how many he needed, he instead focused on how many he could get. It was a test of endurance. He spent as long as he could on the platform, fighting off Blazes and the Withered Skeletons until something forced him to leave. 

Dream wasn’t entirely sure what to expect in the Nether, but there was one thing he was certain wouldn’t be there.

Hunters.

Going into the Nether was against the law, so Dream thought he would have been free from the people who would see his mask on a poster and take it as a challenge. Free from people who would run into him on the road and make a desperate attempt to take him down. Out of fear or for glory, he didn't know. Dream thought, Dream knew that he wouldn't have to worry about them. 

But those three.

Those three hunters who had been more persistent than anyone in the past four years. 

Most people that came after him would give up after one or two attempts, but those three had been after him for a couple months. They would find him no matter where he went or how well he hid. He wasn’t even willing to interact with them while not wearing his mask, as he did with other hunters, out of the fear that they would see right through him. 

Looking at their track record, Dream shouldn’t have been surprised to see them running into the fortress he was in, but that didn’t stop him from panicking as they reached the building seconds after he noticed them. 

He slayed the last Blaze on the platform and ran towards where he remembered the exit being, but the hunters were already inside. He turned a corner to see a brunette with goggles on his head. The boy's bow was still strapped behind his back, but that didn't stop him from charging Dream on sight. 

Dream turned to a different hallway and went up the first set of stairs he saw. He ended up on the roof, so close to a netherrack cliff and crimson trees that he hoped could provide cover to escape. Before he could reach the closest area to the cliff another hunter appeared from another staircase in front of him, this being the one wearing a hood. It didn't take a genius to realize he had been cornered. Surrounded by hunters, standing a hundred feet above lava and just out of reach of the cliff, Dream found himself searching for an out. 

Said “out” was an old crimson tree that hung over the cliff precariously. Dream took his chances and sprinted full speed towards the hooded hunter, he sidestepped at the last moment to dodge the sword pointed at him, then jumped as far as he could, reaching out for the hanging vines on the tree.

Two voices cried out from behind him, though their words went in one ear and out the other. He felt a vine under the palms of his hands and held on tightly. It was disorienting swinging on the vine, but as soon as he felt his momentum start to slow down he let go of the vine and landed on a piece of netherrack a little below the top of the cliff. Dream wasted no time climbing up to try and retreat into the trees. He wasn’t fast enough however and pain ripped through his calf as an arrow from the hunter with goggles pierced into his leg. 

He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the throbbing and lying to himself, saying it will wear off like the pain of the Wither Skeleton. Eventually, Dream makes it out of the Nether. In pain, and with hunters not fair behind, but at least alive and free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone have tips on how to fight a god?


	4. In Memory of Boots

Dream would easily admit, he was becoming slightly, just slightly, paranoid. 

He had no idea how close the hunters were to him and despite his best first aid-attempt he was injured and moving slowly. Keeping to the road in order to speed himself up and avoid the Endermen in the trees didn't help his mental state either, as he had to take off his mask whenever he passed someone to guarantee that he wouldn't be attacked on sight. 

Dream wasn’t sure when he became uncomfortable without the mask on, but knowing that it was gone from his face made him anxious, like he was when he had first set out on his journey. He flinched every time he passed someone on the road. Multiple people had tried to stop him, give him medical attention or a potion for his leg, but he clammed up when they approached and denied help until they would move on and leave him alone. 

He hadn’t slept much, if at all, over his two days of travel. Trying to get to a nearby village and hoping it had an alchemist with the tools he would need was proving to be more difficult than he had assumed.

Suddenly, the bushes beside the path he was on shook slightly before something grey was rushing at his feet. Dream tried to pull out his sword, but he fumbled as the thing pressed against him. 

“Meoow”

It was a cat. Dream felt foolish. 

“Boots come back!” A child's voice rang out from the trees, a far bit away from where he was. It was easy to piece together that the cat was “Boots” and that it had run away from home. 

Dream picked up the surprisingly friendly cat, who went almost completely limp in his arms for no discernible reason, and went into the woods on his right. The terrain was rough on his injury, but the kid sounded distressed and Dream wasn’t a monster. Cats and kids usually meant villages too, unless the cat wasn’t the only one lost. 

It didn’t take long to find the crying kid, scared to drift away from the edge of the town, but desperately searching for their pet . 

“Um, hey…” Dreams voice cracked slightly, he hadn’t spoken often in the last four years and it showed whenever he did. “I found-”

“Boots!” The kid ran up to him and pulled the cat out of his arms, smiling brightly through their tears. “You big dumb boy! Stop running off you hear. Thank you for- wait. Sir, you’re hurt.” Trailing off when they noticed Dream’s leg, which was obviously bleeding through his bandage, the kid quickly led him into town where he was pointed to an alchemist who would sell him potions. The two parted ways, three if you counted Boots, and Dream took his mask off as he stepped into the alchemist shop. 

The main area of the shop was full of interesting stones and items, none of which Dream could afford or reasonably keep while on the run despite how much he wanted them, but behind the counter was what he was there for. There were potions of healing on the shelves and a woman working at a small station in the back corner.

“Excuse- excuse me,” Dream started, “how much for a healing potion, and is there any way… any way I could borrow your station?” 

“Well, boy, you can't just expect me to stop my work so you can play pretend for a little bit.” He felt his face fall at her words, schooling his expression quickly when he remembered she could see it. “Now, now. No need to look so down. I’m always willing to trade. If you can bring me something valuable to my craft I will lend you my workspace for a minute or two, I’ll even throw in the potion for free if it's fancy enough. What do you say, have anything you think might pique my interest?” 

Dream took another look around the room and felt entirely out of his element. Everything that the alchemist owned and sold was full of mystery and life. The heroes of old would have been able to create something, or grant her high status in the kingdom for helping them. Dream had nothing. A sword. A bow. He had left everything valuable in the Hero of Greens cave. Four years of travel and he had gained nothing much more than unreliable information and a sizable amount of blaze rods. 

Blaze rods!

Dream reached into his pocket and pulled out about a third of the rods he had, hoping he would still have enough to make the eyes of ender he placed them gently on the counter. 

The woman’s eyes widened in shock as she examined the glowing yellow object. She glanced at him, as if not sure if she was really allowed to have them, before taking them from the counter and rushing towards a back door. 

“Go ahead, whatever you need from my shop. Go. I need to-” The alchemist started whispering under her breath. Dream could only make out a couple of words before she shut the door behind her. He would have assumed she would want to be inside with all her equipment when given something interesting, but Dream wasn’t an alchemist. 

Grabbing the closest healing potion, and hiding a second in his pocket for later, Dream felt the forign sensation of his leg fixing itself in a matter of seconds. He took a moment to get used to pulling weight on both legs again before starting to make the eyes of ender he needed. 

Having only read about the procedure in a worn away book hundreds of years old, it took some trial and error before he was successful in creating one of the cat-like eyes, once he did it was obvious he didn’t need to spend nearly as much time in the Nether as he did. Dream ended up with twenty or so eyes and still had blaze rods and ender pearls left over. He would’ve made them all into eyes, but the anxieties of staying in one place for too long only grew as he worked. 

Exiting the shop and walking back towards where he entered town he noticed an unnatural quiet had fallen among the people. Dream snuck behind the houses until he noticed the little kid and alchemist in a small group of people. Crouching behind a nearby barrel to get a closer look he held in a gasp as he noticed the rest of the group was the hunters. He sat as still as possible, holding his breath, as the hunter with the goggles started straying from the pack. Looking down at a compass in his hand the hunter inched slowly towards Dream’s hiding spot until he was looking over the barrels. 

Dream froze in place as the two of them made eye contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved Boots with all my heart, I'm glad he can live on within a story on the internet. He was a problem causing idiot who trusted easily, but I wouldn't have traded him for the world. 
> 
> Enjoy being a ghost, buddy.


	5. Friends, Once Upon A Time

Dream attempted to escape, he thought he could lose the hunters in the village and run out the other side. How was he supposed to know there was a ravine blocking off the entire west side of the town? It was large, so deep you couldn’t see the bottom. His evasion attempt was quickly cut off by the break in the earth and he found himself face-to-face with the hunters, quite literally, as his mask was still off of his face from when he had entered the alchemist's shop. They had weapons drawn as they looked upon his face for the first time, no doubt memorizing it in case he escaped. He did the same in turn while he listened carefully to the world around him.

“Come nicely and we won't hurt you.” The one with the bandana tied around his head spoke as if he was confused, like he was questioning the statement he had made. This drew Dream attention to him for the first time, he wasn’t often up close to him at all, due to him not fighting with Dream as much as the others, and never this close. 

That’s when Dream recognized him. 

:)

“No! He is coming home!” Clay yelled at the boy in front of him, he was two years older and they were best friends. Under normal circumstances they wouldn’t be fighting, but now…

“Clay, your dad has been gone all week! He’s not-” 

“Shut up, Nick! I told you he’s saving the world, you know the story. My dad is a hero!”

“It’s just a story, Clay!” Nick tried to reason with the crying child in front of him. “There is no dragon, there are no heroes, and you need to stay with someone until you are old enough to be alone. Come on, we can share a room even.”

Nick’s parents, who have been whispering in the corner of the room since they had brought Clay over, parted once they saw their son wasn’t able to calm the newly orphaned boy in front of them. Clay softened his glare as the boy's mother approached, he had always been slightly scared of her. 

“Your father is a braver man than any of us,” Nick’s mother started. “I’m sure the Great Dragon is quaking in his boots at the thought of his and his sword.”

“The dragon has boots?” Clay hiccuped, tears slowing down. 

“Did your father never mention that? She has big clunky boots that slowed her down so much that the heroes could best her. It’s a very important part of the story.” Clay giggled alongside the woman as he tried to imagine a huge intimidating dragon with the horse riding boots that the rancher in town wore. “Now, of course your father will come home, but he would want you to be safe and healthy when he returns, right?”

Clay nodded, missing the disappointed look Nick was giving his mother. He had turned to his father for support, only for the man to join his wife. 

“How about you stay with us until your dad returns from his journey. You wouldn’t want him to worry about his son while in the big battle.”

With that in mind, Clay decided to move in with Nick’s family, and for the next seven years they looked after him. Nick’s father taught him to fight and his mother told him the story of the heroes before bed. 

Nick himself became an older brother to Clay and dedicated himself to learning about hunters and tracking. He had vowed to himself on the day Clay moved in that he would one day find Clay’s father and find the reason he abandoned the son he seemed to care for so much. 

:)

“Nick… I-” Dream should have known that the man in front of him would be hunting him down one day, he had committed his life to learning how to track and was good at it. Even so, it hurt Dream to see him standing there, sword in hand. “I told you- I told you years ago, my dad was a hero. You never- I doubt you ever found him. He died doing what I am right now. If you kill me, or- or you turn me in, then you are the reason my dad never came home.” 

Dream closed his eyes, refusing to look at the man he once considered a brother, and jumped back into the darkness of the ravine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the formatting changes randomly in this story and I have no idea how to fix it.
> 
> sorry :(
> 
> If it doesn't though, that's cool.


	6. Wait, Are We the Bad Guys?

The three hunters stared into the black pit in front of them, stunned by the words of the man who had thrown himself in. Dreams speech was cryptic and yet revealing in more ways than one, and all of them had questions. They stood at the edge of the ravine in silence for a few minutes until their trance was broken by Sapnap who turned to George in a frenzy. 

“Give me my compass.” He demanded, not caring for manners in the moment.

“Wait, what? No. Not until you explain what Dream just said.” George clutched the compass to his chest hiding the face from Sapnap, his voice shook slightly. “You killed his dad?” 

“He meant metaphorically, idiot. Give me the compass.”

“Why? So you can run off and protect him, ‘Nick’?”

“No!” Sapnap yelled too quickly. He had to look at the compass. They were close enough to Dream that if he survived the fall it would be able to pick up his movement. Sapnap didn’t know what he would do if it did. Maybe he would try to protect his closest friend from the same fate of his father. Maybe he would turn around and go home, visit his parents for the first time in years. Maybe it wouldn’t change anything. But he had to know. 

“Let’s head back into town guys,” Bad attempted to diffuse the situation “once we have a place to stay we’ll talk about what happened and give the compass back.” Though tensions were high the two agreed and were silent until they had a room to sleep in and the privacy of walls around them. 

They found a small inn at the town and settled in quickly, comfort being the last thought on anyone’s minds. Before someone could turn hostile again, Bad took the compass from George and gave it back to its maker. Sapnap had thought they would be too far away for there to be any difference in how the needle pointed, but when he looked down it was in a completely different direction from where they came. He didn’t know how to feel about it, but let out a relieved sigh anyways.

“So,” He started without being prompted, knowing what questions the others wanted to ask, “about Dream. I’ve known him since he was born, we were best friends. When he was nine his father went missing and he moved in with my family. Clay- Dream always insisted his father was a hero that had gone off to save the world. I invented this compass while I was trying to find where his father really went.” 

“Where did he go?” George asked carefully, afraid of the answer.

“I found him in jail, waiting to be executed. His crimes ranged from trespassing to treason and he seemed proud of what he had done, like he thought he was right or something.”

“He thought he was a hero, too?” Bad chipped in. “How come he and Dream think that? How could a hero commit so many crimes?”

“Have you ever heard the story of five heroes, or champions, fighting a dragon to stop its armies from attacking innocent people?”

“It sounds a little familiar?” George tried to remember as best he could. “Someone might have told me… The champions were colour coded, right?” 

“The Hero of Green was their leader. There was also Red, Blue and White.”

“I thought you said there were five of them?” Bad, having never heard the story, asked.

“There were two blue heroes!” George answered before Sapnap could. “I remember now. There was a guy who lived in the community hall, kept track of all the old records, He told me that the Heroes of Blue founded our town. Now that I’m thinking about it, he was arrested too.”

The tension in the air was thicker than when they were fighting as the implications hit them. 

“Was it for ‘treason’?” Bad spoke quietly, like he didn’t want to be heard.

“The people who took him in took all the records too, said they would look after them. No one cared about the dusty things so there was no argument. I don’t even know where they went.” George nodded.

“It had bothered me a bit when the king declared the Ender Dragon sacred.” Sapnap whispered. Their entire conversation was quiet at this point, wary of the people outside. “Why would he hide that there was something protecting the people for so long? Endermen wouldn’t have been nearly as scary as a kid if I knew there was a dragon stopping them.”

“If people are scared they…” Bad hesitated. “If people are scared, they rely on authority. If they aren’t willing to trade because of Endermen, they pay the capital to do it. They move to big cities and hire the king’s guards to watch over them if their towns are too small to fight back. I think… The king wants the attacks… 

“And we are protecting their cause.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Subscribe to Technoblade.


	7. At the End, Foes are Made Allies

Dream wakes up right where he went to sleep. On a small protrusion from the cliffside, raised slightly above the rushing water below him. He had barely been able to get himself up out of the water, and it was only thanks to the other healing potion he had grabbed from the alchemist that he was able to make it through the night.

Feeling slightly sick due to the lack of fire, Dream wrung out his clothes as best he could, finally placed his mask back on his face, and went to climb out of the ravine to continue his journey when something slowly dawned on him. He had no idea how to find the portal to the end. The eyes he had made were supposed to help, from what he understood, but he had no idea how. 

A frustrated growl ripped out of him. 

He threw away four years of his life, lost his father and his best friend, made the entire world his enemy and he suffered. Plain and simple, he suffered. All so he could risk his life in a huge battle and probably never come home. Dream was sick and tired of the lack of information, and the loose ends, and uncertainty. He just wanted something to make sense. Someone to help him. 

In his anger he took an eye of ender and threw it to the ground, wanting to relish in seeing it shatter. 

Only it didn’t go down.

The strange green orb flew straight up and into the cliff beside him, it seemed like it passed though the wall until Dream realised there was a small overhang. Anger pushed aside by curiosity, he carefully climbed up the wet rock to find the eye on the ground at the entrance of a cave system. 

He grabbed the eye and threw it again, it went down the cave much farther than his throw would’ve allowed and went down one of the two paths the cave had to offer. 

Dream spent a fair amount of time searching through the caves. He was frequently slowed down by violent mobs, including Endermen who were rare to find unless attacking a town or road, and even stopped in his tracks as his guide ran into a wall and he was forced to find a way around. He wonders at one point if he should have brought a pickaxe, but how was he supposed to know he would need one? 

A couple of times he got his original wish granted, and the eye would shatter mid-air leaving nothing but purple dust, but that failed to deter Dream as he just took out a new eye and continued. 

He had no idea how long it took until he found falling apart brick forming a structure. His eyes had to adjust to the light from torches on the walls, but once they did he was able to explore the area easily. 

There were many mobs, though Dream was expecting them from the large amounts outside the building, chests with gold, diamonds, and ender pearls, even a decently stocked room dedicated to alchemy. He had made sure to loot that room of any non-expired potions he could, though there weren't many. 

Just as Dream when to enter the last unexplored room, he heard voices. Unfortunately, he was unable to stop himself before walking into the view of the three hunters who were surrounding what Dream could only assume was the frame for the portal. There was no means of getting around them, no way to escape. Unsheathing his sword and adjusting his mask, he prepared himself for the last hurdle between him and the dragon. 

“Oh, hey Dream.” The one with hood laughed nervously, failing at keeping his voice casual. “We got off on the wrong foot.”

A cheap trick. One Dream was never going to fall for. He gripped his sword tighter and scanned the portal for a way to activate it. Nick caught his attention by dropping his sword on the ground, the hunter goggles followed with his bow and after a moment all three of them were unarmed and cornered in the room. Either they were dumb or they had hidden weapons. 

“Um, I’m BadBoyHalo, you can call me Bad.” The hunter, Bad, tried again. “Sapnap told us about the champions, and, well, we might be on the wrong side here. Which means you’re on the right side. We were-” 

“What he’s trying to say is we want to help you.” The hunter with the goggles buds in impatiently.

“George! I was getting there. Look, I know you have no reason to trust us. At least, no reason to trust George and I, but we really want to help out. We chased you for months,” Bad was terrible at making a case for himself, “you have to let us make up for it.”

Dream hoped his unimpressed face could be read through his mask. He turned towards “Sapnap” and cocked his head. 

“Dream, do you really think you can take on a dragon that took five trained heroes to fight while alone?” Why did Sapnap always have to be a voice of reason? Dream never thought that far on purpose. He thought about fighting the dragon alone and shivered. 

“One suspicious move,” Dream struggled to keep his voice steady and intimidating, “and I throw you into the void.”

“Void?” Bad asks. 

Dream smirked as he stepped towards the portal frame, seeing a couple ender eyes within it implying it had to be filled with more. When the repairs were done he jumped into the endless stars that covered the lava that the portal frame stood above. Once the others followed him he could hear their gasps as they took in the darkness that surrounded them completely. 

Interrupted only by a distant, powerful, roar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reaching the end of the story here, hope you are still enjoying


	8. Holy Shit is That a Dragon?

The large, pale yellow platform they stood on was inhabited solely by Enderman. More than any of them had seen in their lifetime. They seemed peaceful in the dark of their homeworld and paid no attention to the group of people invading their home. Dream realized belatedly that there was no portal back in sight, the only structures nearby were sky high obsidian pillars and a fountain-like structure made of strange rock, past that there was seemingly endless void. 

What didn’t ignore them was the giant winged creature flying around the pillars. The dark dragon was difficult to make out amongst the black of the sky, purple eyes shining down on them. A feeling of dread washed over the entire group as the dragon dived at them, releasing a purple rain that forced them all apart. 

“Holy shit.” Sapnap yelled as he botched his landing. 

“Langu-”

“Not the time!” 

The new age of heroes regrouped behind one of the obsidian towers as the dragon rested on the fountain, still shaken from switching worlds and being confronted by a creature of legend. Bad turned to Dream as Sapnap checked his ankle.

“What’s the plan here? None of us are prepared for… that.” Bad’s voice was just above a whisper, wary of the tall creatures surrounding them. 

“Well I was hoping to evade it long enough to find a weakness.” Dream started. “That is a bit more difficult with four people.” He glared under his mask, enjoying the fact that they couldn’t see his expression. 

“We still need to find a weakness, if something like that even has one.” After deciding he wasn’t badly injured, Sapnap joined their conversation. 

No one realized George was missing until the sound of an explosion ripped through the vast emptyness of the world and ran to the group, breathless. Above them, coming from the top of the obsidian pillar, was plumes of smoke and soft orange, flame like, light. 

“There’s these crystal things,” he yelled. Catching the attention of multiple Endermen, though they stayed where they were, gathered around one of their own that held a flower in its hand. “They send energy to the dragon. If you shoot them they blow up.”

“And you thought it was a good idea to try it alone?” Dream sighed listlessly. 

“Um, yeah. Anyways, if Bad and Sapnap act as a distraction we can get rid of the crystals.” There was a fair bit of protest, particularity from Sapnap, on who played distraction, but it wasn’t long before the dragon was drawn by their voices and the group was forced to split up. 

Dream ran across the gap between pillars, and readied his bow. The crystals that George spotted were high up, if there were clouds they would surely be obscured. He allowed himself to be impressed with George as he lined up his shot. It took a couple seconds for the arrow to reach its target, when finally did another explosion rang out. One more quickly followed, caused by his new ally.

Focusing on his task, sticking close to the towers as to avoid the dragon, it was easy to tune out the taunts that Sapnap and Bad were yelling. He had yet to be attacked so he assumed they were working and didn’t pay attention. What was harder to ignore was a panicked scream suddenly above him. 

Bad had been thrown into the air, purple particles from the dragons breath falling off him, and he was plummeting to the ground much too fast. 

Dream grabbed an enderpearl from his pocket and threw it up as high as he could on the tower, telaporting himself to the side of it. He pushed off of it as soon as he felt his feet leave the ground, propelling himself far enough out that he was underneath Bad. Catching the older man in the air, and using another pearl to hit the wall of the tower and slow them down instead of hitting the ground, the pair received much more minor injures than Bad would have received alone. If he survived at all. 

“The crystals are healing it, any hits we’ve got in have been fixed with magic from them.” Bad, bruised and shaken, prepared himself to go back to Sapnap who was struggling alone in the open. Dream nodded in response and handed him some pearls to share with Sapnap before continuing his task, much faster than he was before. 

He took out about ten of the crystals, some protected by iron bars, when a final explosion sounded and the dragon, while previously annoyed, became furious. It landed on the fountain in the middle once more, biting and swiping when it was aproached and letting out earth shattering screams when they were too far away. 

There was an unspoken agreement throughout their group. Dream drew his sword and joined the others, taking turns drawing the dragons attention to them and attacking when it was distracted. George, with no close ranged weapon, stayed behind the obsidion pillars, waiting for the right moments to fire upon the monster, cutting its breath short, and ruining it’s attacks. Bad wasn’t the last one to be thrown in the air, but most attacks only succeeded in tossing them a small way, the more violent attacks countered with an ender pearl. 

With the dragons healing taken away, there was finally progress in the direct attack on it. Wounds stayed open, bleeding a thick, dark liquid, and its reaction time slowed. It tried to take to the sky but was stopped by Georges arrows ripping holes through its wings. Once it realized it was cornered, the purple breath became more common, trying to force its attackers away. 

One of these attempts hit Dream, tossing him straight up into the air. Instead of reaching for a pearl, however, he tightened his hold on the sword in his hand, using the height gained by the throw to thrust his blade into the skull of the dragon. He let go and fell to the ground as the dragon recoiled, a bright purple light emitting from the various wounds on the dragon. The shine filled the void they were in until suddenly, the dragon disappeared. Ceasing to exit entirely. 

The fountain they were fighting around filled with the same substance as the portal from before, and the four knew their fight was over.


	9. Eplilouge

“- he then fell into the ravine. It was so deep, and there was no way out. I guarantee he is dead.” Bad held his breath, hoping the king would buy into his lie. 

After they jumped into the portal they found themselves not too far from the capitol. It was quickly decided that they would hole up in Bad’s home as he reported Dream’s “death” to the king. Buying them time to figure out what they were going to do next. After all, there was no way the group was going to separate, they had just begun unraviling something huge and were determined to get to the bottom of it. 

“BadBoyHalo, it’s not that I lack faith in your judgement, but I know that Dream is still alive.” The kings words sent a spike of fear through Bad. How did he know? Did he know that he betrayed him as well? “You are one of my most loyal subjects,” Oblivious to Bad’s panic the king continued, “and I trust you more than my own advisors. Follow me.”

Warily, Bad followed the king to his personal quarters and through a door concealed by a painting of the royal family. He was lead down a long staircase that he was sure took them deep underground. Judging by they way his ears popped halfway down, he was right. Eventually they reached a small room. 

Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with forgotten novels and records, there were armors, weapons, capes, and banners adorned with a strangly familiar symbol piled onto one another throughout the room. In the center, on four separate padastols, were glowing stones. 

White, blue, red, and green. 

“As long as these gems are lit, the bloodlines of those who seek to kill the dragon live on. I had thought the green stone would go out when I executed the green traitor, when my men investigated his home it turned out he had a son. The foolish people of the town never told me where he was hidden.” Bad silently thanked Sapnaps parents, wondering why they kept quiet. “I expect you to take that tracker I hear you be been working with and find where Dream is hiding. These traitors have stayed under the radar for years and are good at it. Once Dream is taken out you must go after the rest of these descendents. After all, no one else could even stand a chance against the sacred dragon…" 

When Bad returned home he relayed to them all he was shown, along with the kings message, with one major difference. 

“We have to find the descendants of the heroes, and warn them. The king is coming for their heads.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I may or may not be writing a sequel. It might take a while to be posted though... I hope you enjoyed the story though! It was fun to write, and it's not often I get to share what I write anymore, so I'm glad you read all the way through!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Once the Dream SMP rose in popularity I stopped being able to find manhunt fics so I wrote my own. The entire thing is finished so I will try and post every day or every other day depending on how much people enjoy this. 
> 
> Also, only a small percentage of readers actually kudo- 
> 
> Just kidding, but comments and kudos are very welcome.


End file.
